Life Hack -- Need a Rack Stand

Life Hack -- Need a Rack Stand 

By Joel Rees, March, April 2020, Amagasaki, Japan

Copyright 2020

 (日本語の注釈付き)

Joe: Sweetheart, we've got a problem.

Chika: What problem?

Joe: With the modem and router from the new ISP. See?

Chika: Yeah, they'll be in the way when we're cooking. And get stepped on. And get splattered with grease and stuff.

Joe: That's what I'm thinking. The old router was pretty grungy from leaving it down there.

Chika: It was always in the way. But we can't afford a new set of shelves to put there, and you don't have time to design and build a custom set.

Joe: Yeah, I need to be making money instead of shelves. But they need to be close to the telephone outlet, and that's basically where it is.

Chika: So? What do you suggest?

Joe: That cardboard box.

Chika: Put them inside it? Won't they get too warm?

Joe: They would definitely get too warm.

Chika: Of course.

Joe: When we moved here, I looked for a rack stand to go where that cardboard box is, but we couldn't find anything we could afford.

Chika: I remember.

Joe: I'm going to go to Tsukashin Mall to look again. Let me write down the measurements. Okay, it's 30 cm wide by 40 cm deep by 35 to 40 cm tall.

Chika: Don't take too much time, Hon.

*****

Joe: Here's what I found, Honey, fifteen by thirty:

Chika: No way. That's not big enough. It's tall enough, but it needs to be a little deeper and twice as wide.

Joe: If we turn it the other way, it's just wide enough.

Chika: It'll fall over if the wind blows.

Joe: Hang on. I have enough parts to make another one.

*****

Joe: So we can use two of them. See?

Chika: That still looks unsteady. What'll happen in the next earthquake?

Joe: Well, I actually bought two extra shelves. We can attach the two stands to each other with the shelves. Give me a minute or two.

 *****

Joe: Whaddaya think?

Chika. That took ten minutes. But it does look more stable.

Joe: Now we can put the modem and the router on those trays, and they'll be out of the way, and have some protection. There we go:

Chika: Something doesn't look right -- besides all the wires tangled up everywhere.

Joe: You're right. I could use those connecting shelves to hold the power supplies and the power strip.

Chika: Wouldn't that work better if you put the power supplies in the trays instead of on the shelves?

Joe: Yeah. That's true. And I think it would work better to have the shelves at the top, to stabilize that stack of drawers. Let's see how long it takes me to move them around.

*****

Joe: Voila!

Chika: Took you half an hour. Since when do you speak French?

Joe: It's English, too. Let's see how it stacks up.

Chika: Not bad. All the wires are nicely put away, and everything is off the floor. It needs some sort of shield on the side, I think.

Joe: Yeah, and it needs a flat piece of wood or cardboard between the shelves and the drawers, too. We can find something later. See how the power strip is down low, where we can reach it?

Chika: Why do we need to reach it?

Joe: You know how electronics are. Ever since I was chased out of the industry for trying to make sure products work, everything you buy has to be regularly reset and power cycled.

Chika: Hush up about the industry. You never fit in, anyway.

Joe: (Mutter, grumble.)

Chika : And it's time for you to go find a paying job. We have bills to pay, you know, honey.

Joe: True. Too true.

(Chika and Joe are two characters in an alternate reality novel I'm working on now, based loosely on me and my wife.)